I was going to save this to post on Valentine's Day, but I can't wait. It's too good to hold in.
The other night I was lazily browsing through the interwebbs (instead of responding to emails) when I stumbled upon this website called The Smooch! Project.
What is The Smooch! Project, you ask?
It is a project started by Minnesota photographer Bonnie Fournier, who one day noticed just how much joy she felt when looking at a photo of her sister smooching her on the cheek. She decided to start a project based on the idea of mudita, or "appreciative joy," a word used to describe the feeling one experiences when witnessing another's good fortune.
And this project, she decided, would be a testing of that idea. So she take pictures of people kissing their loved ones on the cheek.
And she already has thousands of them!
According to the website, it is "intended to serve as a documentary record demonstrating that all humans, regardless of social, economic, or political barriers, share a joyful willingness to welcome love and affection into their lives. The artist's goal is to collect 10,000 exhibition-quality images."
If you ever need a reminder of the basic beauty that is love, this is the place to go.
Today I kinda needed a pick-me-up. So I opened The Smooch! Project on my browser and probably watched a solid five minutes of pictures slide by. By the end, I felt so much better.
If that was the goal of her project, then I'd say it was a huge success!
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